Texas woman sent to prison for sending meth-laced mail into detention facility following investigation by HSI Corpus Christi, law enforcement partners

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A Texas woman was sentenced to two years in federal prison for sending meth-laced papers disguised as mail to the Coastal Bend Detention Center following an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Corpus Christi and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service, the GEO Group, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Corpus Christi Police Department, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Bureau of Prisons and the FBI Miami Task Force.

Gail Hostetter, a 54-year-old resident of Corpus Christi, was sentenced in the Southern District of Texas to serve two years in federal prison to be immediately followed by two years of supervised release for knowingly and intentionally possessing and attempting to provide methamphetamines to an inmate. Hostetter pleaded guilty to the charges July 21.

On Jan. 29, 2021, Hostetter mailed a letter purporting to be from a local law firm to an inmate at CBDC. However, facility staff intercepted it and sent it for testing. The mail tested positive for meth. Law enforcement subsequently executed a search warrant on Hostetter’s residence, where they found additional empty envelopes preaddressed from various local law firms.

The investigation revealed the inmate devised the plan and recruited Hostetter among others to mail meth-laced papers into the detention center. The scheme involved creating envelopes designed to look like legal mail.

At the time of her plea, Hostetter admitted to mailing meth into a jail facility on at least one other occasion.

Hostetter will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Marck and Christopher Marin prosecuted the case.

For more news and information on HSI Houston’s efforts to aggressively investigate narcotics smuggling and trafficking in Southeast Texas, follow us on Twitter @HSIHouston.